5) He put Minneapolis on the musical map.

The film "Purple Rain" solidified Prince's stature as a mega pop icon and put the Minneapolis music club First Avenue on the national map.

In the movie, Prince and his love interest rode a purple motorcycle to get purified "in the waters of Lake Minnetonka."

And he was an avid supporter of the local music scene: His final tweet was a link Saturday to the website of The Electric Fetus record store in Minneapolis, where he was selling his Piano & A Microphone concert program.

Electric Fetus retail music manager Bob Fuchs said his store sold out of Prince merchandise in two hours after news broke that Prince had died.

6) He played a leading role in creating the Minneapolis Sound.

Unlike other musicians from the state, Prince stayed rooted in Minnesota and helped pioneer the Minneapolis Sound, which Rolling Stone described as a "hybrid of rock, pop, and funk, with blatantly sexual lyrics."

The scene cultivated musicians and producers — Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Appolonia 6, Sheila E., Morris Day, and many others — who would go on to spread their influence throughout the pop and R&B of the 1980s.

Its influence can be heard all the way through to Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars' 2014 song "Uptown Funk."

7) He was prolific.

Poster that was included with Prince and the Revolution's album, Purple Rain.Album liner

Prince released 39 albums over a span of 37 years, and had five No. 1 singles, including "When Doves Cry," "Kiss," and "Let's Go Crazy."

His catalog is massive — in addition to the studio albums, he's produced about 160 singles and EPs and well over 1,000 recorded appearances in all, according to Discogs.

Prince also worked with several bands throughout his career: Grand Central (later known as Champagne), The Revolution, The New Power Generation and, most recently, 3rdEyeGirl.

8) He became The Artist in the '90s.

Former Sly and the Family Stone bassist Larry Grahm, left, shares the stage with The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, during a surprise appearance at a nightclub in New York. The Artist changed his name from Prince to a symbol in 1993.Suzanne Plunkett | AP 1998

He changed his name in 1993 to an unpronounceable symbol during a dispute with his record label, Warner Bros. He was commonly referred to as "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince."

He's also been known as The Purple One, His Royal Badness, The Artist Formerly known as Prince.

9) He wrote all kinds of other hit songs you probably didn't realize.

While the seven-time Grammy winner — he also won an Oscar in 1985 for Best Original Score for the film "Purple Rain" — had his own collection of memorable hits, he wrote chart-toppers that he's not famous for, including:

11) He was named one of Time magazine's most influential people in the world.

In 2010, he was named to Time's yearly list. In an essay for the magazine, R&B star Usher wrote that Prince inspired his second hit — and was a role model when he was first getting interested in music.

"I think I was about 8 or 9 when I saw Purple Rain. I was interested in music and trying to find a model. It was Michael, or it was Prince. He had an attitude, a rawness that Michael didn't have. He was not urban, but he was our version of what cool could be. You look at an icon like James Dean or Steve McQueen — they represent a certain energy, a certain poise. That's what Prince has.

"Young kids are getting into Prince now, and it's because he was ahead of his time. He's timeless. He hasn't aged a bit. My second hit, "Nice and Slow," was inspired by Prince. He's had his ups and downs, but he's used his career to change the way artists are treated. Being in his presence is surreal. His energy is just so fly. He is so poised. He is the s___. He is what he called a 'Sexy M.F.'"

12) He got involved in the Black Lives Matter movement — through music

Last May, Prince released a protest song called "Baltimore" after a black man named Freddie Gray died in police custody, sparking a wave of protests in the city and charges against the officers involved.

"If there ain't no justice, then there ain't no peace," he sings in the song's bridge.

13) He helped inspire Kendrick Lamar's latest album.

"As far as Untitled, Me and Kendrick always talked about doing a sort of Black Album, like how Prince did back in the day," Top Dawg Entertainment Co-President Terrence "Punch" Henderson told Billboard. "There was no album cover, no song titles, no anything — just tracks he threw out."

Prince almost ended up collaborating on Lamar's earlier album, "To Pimp a Butterfly," which has become an anthem for the Black Lives Matter movement.

"[Prince] said he wanted to talk about the beauty of black people," Lamar's collaborator Rapsody told The Grammys. "I told him to say no more."

Lamar said Prince didn't make the cut because "we just ran out of time."

14) He mentored legions of proteges.

Throughout his career, Prince championed women in the music business. Many of his band members were women — including his most recent band, 3rdEyeGirl — during generations where the music industry was dominated by men.

He also worked to bring up the careers of younger female artists like Denise "Vanity" Matthews, Sheila E., Appollonia Kotero and Wendy & Lisa.

15) "Purple Rain" was remade in Niger — in a language that doesn't have a word for "purple."

The songs may have changed, and so has the wardrobe, but the battle of the bands still stands at the heart of this Tuareg remake of Purple Rain.Courtesy of Christopher Kirkley

Three decades after the film first premiered, it got a remake filmed in Niger, featuring members of a nomadic group of people known as the Tuareg.

It's called Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai — which translates to "Rain the Color of Blue with a Little Red in It." That's because there's no word for "purple" in Tamajeq, the language spoken by the Tuareg.

16) He had a memoir in the works.

Prince announced in March that he was writing a memoir, called "The Beautiful Ones." One of his literary agents told the Wall Street Journal that day that Prince had already submitted 50 pages to editors.

Rolling Stone called it "one of the most anticipated memoirs in music history."

It was set to be published in the fall of 2017.

The Associated Press and MPR News editor Meg Martin contributed to this report.